Should College Athletes get Pay

[Ldlane]

You can talk about "shoe contracts" and "bowl money" being made by Universities. However, if a student does research and comes up with miracle cure for something or a new information done in a lab they don't get paid but the university reaps the benefits. Sure, they may get an internship or something but it still the property of the university. Unlike a professor which will receive a financial reward or something.

 

[TexasBammer]

I think yes.

Charge $10.00 for A-day. Put the money in a good retirement fund for the players.

I think most people would agree that this would be fine if you used the court of common sense.....


Problem..... lawyers and people who believe in utter fairness for the sake of being fair... because it will become... it's not fair to other sports... why not pay all sports people more... soccer, bball. then the lawsuits would fly... etc...

So, it will never happen, which is too bad for many.

 

[Capstone46]

TommyMac said it correctly. It will never happen. Title IX (the Federal Government, not the NCAA) requires equal funding for male and female athletic programs. Paying 85 football players would break most universities if they were forced to pay an equal amount to women. Our gymnastic team loses $1.5 million per year(and worth every cent for the University) and women's basketball about the same. We can only afford to take those athletic department loses because of our financially successful football program. How could a program that has only a moderately successful football program pay athletes? Since most universities' athletic departments lose money, there is growing support to reduce football scholarships from 85 to 65 in a few years. The NCAA will probably do that to help cut loses for most of their members.

There is another reason. The mission of universities is to educate students and not be a minor league for the NFL -regardless of what the fans may think. The NCAA's new APR's are only the first step towards increasing academic emphasis. We may see a minor leagure pro football league in future years, but it won't be a part of a university's athletic department. The athletic department holds their annual student-athlete awards tomorrow night in the Zone at BDS. The premiere award will be the Bryant Student Athlete winner which recognizes excellence in the classroom. If you ever visit the new Bryant Academic center, you will notice the names of the Bryant winners -since the award's inception in 1985- are prominently displayed in the lobby. The real question is this: if there were a minor league football league that played their games at the same time college football games were played, would you keep going to Alabama games if there were only 30 or 40 scholarship players allowed by the NCAA and those players were required to be successful in the classroom? In other words are you a football fan or a University of Alabama football fan?

 

[spock*]

College Athletes should also get long term disability insurance coverage.

And while we're at it, their scholarship should continue as long as they are academically eligible and should only expire when they graduate.

 

[Ldlane]

College Athletes should also get long term disability insurance coverage.

And while we're at it, their scholarship should continue as long as they are academically eligible and should only expire when they graduate.

I think insurance is offered by each school. I would think that a physical and some sort of insurance would have to be in place for them to play.

 

[red55]

Yes, they should be able to earn some pocket change so that they can go on a date or out for pizza or for gas money so they can drive home to see mom. Many of these kids don't come from wealthy families and they are prohibited from working part time on athletic scholarships.

I have students and graduate students with full academic scholarships working in my lab at LSU for pay. What's the difference? I pay undergraduates from 7 to 9 dollars an hour for the 12 to 20 hours a week they spend working.

Why not pay athletes $7 an hour for the time they spend practicing and playing? It only amounts to $80-100 bucks a week after taxes. That's beer and pretzel money, nothing substantial. It would really help minor sports who don't get full scholarships, like the baseball team which must split only 11 scholarships among them.

 

[Boclive]

Pay the talent or lower ticket prices.

 

[Probius]

haha last i checked...in an INDIRECT way a scholarship is like giving you money FOR school... but that's just me

That's exactly right, and I don't even think it is that indirect. There is no difference between say someone giving me a car valued at $50,000 and giving me $50,000 cash. Well OK, I can do whatever I want with the cash, it is a little more liquid. But either way I am getting $50,000. Six in one or half a dozen in the other. I get tired of hearing people talk like these athletes don't get compensated. A college education isn't exactly cheap.

 

[Mamacalled]

Abbsolutely not. They alread get their room, tuition, books and food paid for along all while being able to qualify for Pell Grants. An athlete can receive over 7,000 a year from Pell grants that does not need to be repaid. Not alot of money but when all of their other expenses covered that is about what an E-1 makes in the military.

$7,000 for a Pell Grant is what it was several years ago when I was in college. I am certain it is more now.

 

[Ldlane]

Pay the talent or lower ticket prices.

If they start paying the "talent", ticket prices will rise!

 

[TIDE-HSV]

As noted above, we already pay them. As also noted above, we can't really afford to pay them what they're worth in entertainment value. Title IX alone dictates that. What I have a problem with is the gap in assumptions between reality and the rarified air the NCAA breathes. A lot of these kids have kids. Their obligations go on 24/7/52/365. It's a fact of life. Under the CMS regime, not a lot of attention was paid to the fact that players were falling between the cracks in the summers and between terms, even when there were possible actions the FB program could have taken. This was just one more example of unconsciousness in a program which seemed to be running on auto pilot much of the time. I could go on, but I detect my blood pressure rising. Somehow, I don't think I'll see the present staff trying to penalize a kid for going home for a grandmother's funeral (when that is the person who raised the player). I think they're conscious. But something has to be done to align the stipend regs with the realities of our player's lives. The last staff didn't even do what the present NCAA regs would allow...

 

[RollTide007]

No way! They shouldn't get paid any more than they already do. If they got money for playing, the college game would lose all its luster and eventually just be a lower-tier version of the NFL Eurpoe.

 

[Ldlane]

As noted above, we already pay them. As also noted above, we can't really afford to pay them what they're worth in entertainment value. Title IX alone dictates that. What I have a problem with is the gap in assumptions between reality and the rarified air the NCAA breathes. A lot of these kids have kids. Their obligations go on 24/7/52/365. It's a fact of life. Under the CMS regime, not a lot of attention was paid to the fact that players were falling between the cracks in the summers and between terms, even when there were possible actions the FB program could have taken. This was just one more example of unconsciousness in a program which seemed to be running on auto pilot much of the time. I could go on, but I detect my blood pressure rising. Somehow, I don't think I'll see the present staff trying to penalize a kid for going home for a grandmother's funeral (when that is the person who raised the player). I think they're conscious. But something has to be done to align the stipend regs with the realities of our player's lives. The last staff didn't even do what the present NCAA regs would allow...

Earle,

Don't want to get your blood pressure up, but having kids is a choice. You shouldn't penalize a kids for going home for a funeral. One of the problems that I see all of the time is with students and parents buying into the "illusion" that there is a pro contract at the end of rainbow with millions of dollars. When reality doesn't dictate it!

If a kid gets to go to school on an athletic scholarship and then bolts after a year or two should the student pay back the scholarship money?

If they need the money that bad they need to stop playing ball, get a job and continue their education part-time. But somehow I don't think the "education" part is the most important part for "most" athletes.

 

[Capstone46]

ldlane, you make some great points. Playing in the league is the illusion of many who are only in school playing football for that purpose. There is nothing wrong with that "hope" and "dream" if there is a real backup plan. For some that backup plan is their education which allows them to pursue their dreams of playing in the league. In recruiting it appears CNS sells it this way: "we are going to help you be the best football player you can possibly be and help you be successful after you graduate." Players with the hope or illusion of playing in the league will note that CNS had four first round draft picks a couple of days ago. But even those who came to school with the hope (or under the complete illusion) of doing likewise, can be taught how to be successful in life. Great coaches understand and teach those principles. The principles of success are always the same, and there are as many roads to success as there are people willing to build them.

 

[spock*]

Chucky Mullins survived on charity. That is unacceptable.

I think insurance is offered by each school. I would think that a physical and some sort of insurance would have to be in place for them to play.

 

[Ldlane]

Chucky Mullins survived on charity. That is unacceptable.

There is insurance available through the NCAA and the University:

Permissible Medical Expenses
NCAA regulations permit member institutions to provide medical expenses for injury or illness that are incidental to a student's participation in intercollegiate athletics (NCAA Bylaw 16.4.1). These medical expenses include:

Athletics medical insurance
Death and dismemberment insurance for travel connected with intercollegiate athletics competition and practice
Drug-rehabilitation expenses
Counseling expenses related to the treatment of eating disorders
Special individual expenses resulting from permanent disability that precludes further athletics participation. The injury or illness must have occurred while the student-athlete was enrolled at the institution or while the prospect was on an official paid visit

 

[DzynKingRTR]

i had to pay my own way through school. I use loans for half the time and the rest of the way i paid it myself and worked a fulltime job. i owe 20k in loans and I have friend that owe 3 times that and even 5 times in some cases. so i say they already get plenty of money 20k-100k is more than enough.

 

[TIDE-HSV]

The fact that they have kids is basically irrlevant to this discussion. I brought it up mainly to illustrate the size of some of the kids' obligations. We are not going to get away from the fact that many of the players come from poverty-stricken backgrounds. Some of them literally don't have a family to go home to between terms. I see an answer that kids like that need to quit FB and get a job, flipping a burger, maybe, as being cruel and heartless. I reject that answer. My point was that our AD was not doing for the players all that the NCAA regs allow nor anywhere near what other schools were legally doing for their athletes. And, for the record, I worked all the way through undergrad, law school and graduate law school. However, I was always scoping one job ahead. I didn't have to go from being a 100% student/athlete to unemployed for three weeks - and without a place to retreat to. Sorry, that's just the way I feel. I know some of the players and I know what they go through, so that probably affects some of my thinking. Also, for the record, I give money to friends of mine, teachers who've taken in orphaned students, in order to keep them off the foster home rolls. No, they're not athletes...

 

[Ldlane]

Earle,

I agree with you 100% and the fact that for many of these students athletics is a way to get an education. In no way am I going to defend the past coaching administration at UA. My comment about "getting a job" was aimed at the "quick fix" athlete that thinks that he/she is going pro. If "money" is the important factor in his/her "life equation" and education is secondary.

I think if you give "scholarship" money to an athlete then they owe you four years and can't leave early.

 

[TIDE-HSV]

It's important not to throw out the baby with the bath - to paint all athletes with the same brush. The guys I know DO find jobs to fill in when they can. The point is the level playing field. They should get what the scholarshipped athletes at the other schools get. They haven't been getting that, but I'm confident that CNS will remedy that situation. If anyone totted up the years on me, that's eight years working, but still with a sizeable student loan, and conventional loans, to pay off. IF I ever say anything like "I worked, so they get too much," just shoot me. Their berth lies with harder "work" than I ever had to put up with...